Any PS3'ers out there? How is an MMO on console? I have my doubts but I dunno....

I am playing on PS3 and it is indeed a blast to play, no technical issues so far. Gameplay is very good. Using a USB Keyboard and Gamepad for the game.

I think Robert may have sadly rage quit at the loading screen as he does not describe any gameplay. Stick with it Robert, the game is a good one if you can sort out your technical problems, if PC an issue review on PS3, it might be better experience for you.

No problems here playing on a NA server so far using PS3. I am having a blast, but if issues are encountered you can contact customer support and be patient, at launch XIV has a very large player base playing the game, often all trying to get into the fun at about the same time.

When GW1 launched, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.

When SWTOR went F2P, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced (again) on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.

When GW2 launched, the death of the subscription payment model was triumphantly announced (this time with conviction) on game forums all over the internet. Yet it prevailed.

When EQ:Next revealed that it would be a F2P game, it was widely accepted that the death of the subscription payment model was finally and irrevocably at hand. There were celebrations and "I told you so's" on game forums all over the internet.

Then FFXIV:ARR, Wildstar and ESO happened...

"The subscription payment model is dead !"

"Long live the subscription payment model !"

F2P became mainstream and sub hip in 2013. The idea of sub is a good one as after all M$ want to sub you to Office online and same with Adobe and their software. Problem with F2P is the gawd awful excessive cash shop.

I am pumped for this one as I do like to play DiabloIII. How exactly the loot, Paragon, endgame and new crusader class work out is too hard to tell at this early stage. But, an extra 20 levels could be a long-termblast if Blizz make the XP climb very steep.

WildStar Online will not be Free-to-Play. It won’t be Buy-to-Play like Guild Wars 2, either. What does that leave, boys and girls? That’s right, you heard it here first: WildStar will operate via the classic subscription model, with a tasty EVE-like caveat Carbine is calling CREDD.

CREDD means that your real world credit card can be used, by web purchase and an in game mechanism, to gain game gold, but without putting money into the wallets of the gold farmers of the world, and instead putting the dough straight into NCsoft's bank account. Guys, this is a box purchase buy-to-win game, with a sub system that you can opt out of by gaining enough in-game gold. It is so NCsoft a business model, and they can still patch in the full-on cash shop later to make even more money for themselves.

Originally posted by uidCausticWhen they break down and realize console games have no lasting player base per game and bring it to PC, I'll worry about it then.

CCP could patch it into the EVE client. That would require a little skill and work on their part, so likely beyond them for several years at least. But, ultimately this is what they really want with EVE. Point-and-click screensaver style space battles and a FPS on the planets. It's really logical guys, but, you just have to realise that CCP lack the skill to actually write that game now, so you have half of it on PC and the other half on console today. But, EVE players like being kicked in the face and robbed from their wallets, so they will play all of this now. Now, I am not writing that EVE/Dust players are just mindless gaming hipsters now am I?

Results from a poll posted to the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn community paint an interesting picture of the community's potential make up. We weigh in on the results in this week's column.

The poll’s race breakdown data is particularly noteworthy to me. Most MMO players would expect the usual suspects (Humans, Elves, insert diminutive race here) to top the charts, but based off the data we’re seeing expect a whole lot of catgirls and boys – and giants. Lots and lots of giants. Elves (Elezen) make up only a total of 7% of respondents while Miqo’te (cat folk) make up 34% and Roegadyn (giants) come in at 23%. Yes, they even beat out Humans (22%).

"Personally, I’m an elf player in most games, but ARR’s gangly, giraffe-necked Elezen just don’t do it for me at all. I’m not sure if other gamers are simply seeing what I’m seeing or people just want to be cats. Probably a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B."

I am guessing Michael that the pointy ears are a significant draw for you in most mmos?

While other games look to drive the industry forward, and try new things, this game is a step backward for the industry. This is very much your old school MMO, multiple hotbars, one button macroing, forced grouping, stand still to cast, and no dodge or action combat, etc. all bundled up with a sub fee.

"allowing you the player to choose which to ride and which to skip" this part right here is especially false. The game very much forces you in one direction, with required grouping and dungeons, and quest hubs all run on rails. Want a mount? You have to join a faction, which means getting to a certain point in your story missions. Want to use the airships, again only after doing your story missions. Want to run dungeons, oh yea, you need access which is given by doing your story missions. Dont want to do dungeons? Too bad, they are forced within your story missions, and you cant progress in the game without them. Oh and the repeatable content, theres FATES (see Dynamic Events), most of which are death if you try to do them solo. But youll have plenty of time to do them, if you want to level other classes, its all grind, since the quests are not repeatable.

FFXIV:ARR is definitely a themepark, as you said, unapologetically so. This is the best way to describe the game. Its as themepark as themeparks come, right out of 2004. No game has done more handholding or guided rails in the last 5 years, even GW2 allowed you to choose if you wanted to do the story missions or not. Im not saying any of this is a bad thing. Many players want the old school MMO feel. Its whats been missing in their gaming, and why they hate on new MMOs so much. I hope the game is a huge success, and keeps all those gamers satisfied, so they wont need to hate on new games like ESO, or EQN, or ArcheAge, or games that try to do something different for the industry.

This game isn't quite the huge step back it's being made out to be.

First you have to consider FFXIV’s intentional design: a cross-platform, story-driven theme park with choices.

Cross-platform means there are sacrifices to be made so that one platform doesn’t have an avoidable advantage over the other. PS3 users are by and large new to MMOs, so the first 20 levels of the main story quest line is essentially a tutorial where several key things (chocobos, factions, etc.) unlock slowly. Got to ease those new players into the genre and their class roles and that means a couple forced dungeons. Thankfully for veterans it's over pretty fast.

Story-driven (this is Final Fantasy after all) means a central story to tell the narrative. After some point you certainly aren’t forced to continue it, but some elements (certain battles perhaps) will require you to participate in the story. This seems pretty fair considering it’s a Final Fantasy title.

Theme park with choices? Yep, you go through the main story (again, if you want to), choose a faction, choose your class (or hell, choose any of the classes on the same character—a fantastic feature glossed over by many), choose your gear, choose to make a house (player housing is looking rather sandboxy)…you can even, if you want, choose to simply be a crafter or gatherer for your main job. The point is, yes it is a theme park deep down but it’s not this big step backwards; it’s not taking the genre back to the past.

It’s just taken a lot of things that MMOs up until now have done and made them much better. Not everybody wants 100% active combat nor sees it as the proper evolution of an MMO. Not everybody wants to cast on the move or have to dodge attacks all the time like in action games. That’s different and for some it’s great, but it has nothing to do with moving the industry forward. If standing still once in a while makes this game old-school, that’s fine—but it certainly isn’t a stain on the direction of MMOs.

I actually think SE will do really well with ARR since it offers a quality theme park mmorpg to PC and PS3 owners at a time when WoW is in decline and all the F2P games have a B2W cash shop. There is a market still for MMOs that for a sub patch in more rides at a regular rate.

An earlier poster nailed it with GW2 evolved. I think that about sums it up.

Well, we have to wait and see, but I for one would call SOE bull on this and say it is EQ guild wars. Now, that might be alright to play or it might not be, we will have to wait and see, as at this stage who knows. For myself FF XIV ARR seems to be a real mmorpg that is worth putting time and effort into this year, if SOE can release GW Next in 2014 they will have been fast, but I am betting it slips into 2015. Dudes, that is still two years away!

Originally posted by TheHavokAll signs pointing to a D3 expansion. I'm actually excited about this since I recently came back to D3, was able to deck out my toon relatively cheap (less then 5 million gold!) and i'm having fun. The game no longer feels like i'm bashing my head against a wall trying to progress.

I sort of go through phases with DiabloIII at the moment, from zero activity to hardcore playing it. A large conntent expansion would be really good, but can Blizz deliver that to gamers these days, or do we just get a third of a real expansion, then the next third and finally the end of an expansion over a period of about five years? Sadly this may be the case from the boys who run the Blizz nowadays.

Well, folks as we all know World of Warcraft has been by far the largest franchise MMORPG for years now. Heck, they are even filming a Hollywood movie based on it now. But, over the past year or so cracks have appeared in the once golden cash cow and its numbers have fallen till now we hit 7.7 million. Is the WoW dream now over?

I played Panda as a Mage levelling from 1-90 and it was fun, but I jumped off the ride at 90 rather than hop onto the gear grind treadmill of endgame again. Why? Well, I feel I have been there and done that as a former hardcore raider of that game. It wasn't offering anything new. But, the 1-90 ride was a good one, but end-game raiding is old hat, really small group dungeons and content is they best way to go now.

So what can Blizz do now. They have an in-game cash shop to bolster revenue, but that is not enough unless they go free-to-play with a buy-to-win cash shop. What is really needed is another overhaul to make the game mechanics more modern and a large fresh expansion with more adult lore.

Peeps. WoW is in trouble now, I think, and only firm and decisive action can reverse its steady decline now.

We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game. As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the PTR. We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses.

That the business suits who run Blizzard would go in-game cash shop was a no brainer for them and not a real surprise to any gamers. However, the scale of what they are contemplating, namely buy-2-win perks, is going to have a seismic impact on WoW. I think, though, that it has to go hand-in-hand with a change in the sub. To charge the full whack sub and get cash shop Blizzard Bucks out of players is not realistic, if they open up an in-game buy-2-win cash shop then the players need the sub reduced in size or simply made free from sub.

Well, I think the thing Adam needs to remember is that with FF XIV they were looking to put out a next generation mmo to replace FF XI. Now, a few years later the time is in fact ripe for a FF MMO to hit the markets. Gamers are looking for a new game and FF XIV looks to be the major release for the later half of 2013. I certainly will be playing on PS3 at launch.